Page 107 of Always: A Legacy Novel

Dante chuckled, but it faded fast.

“It’s driving now, sure. First, it was that you were too big for bedtime stories, and then it was that you wouldn’t hold my hand when we walked across a street. Then it changed to boys, and dating. Now, it’s driving. Tomorrow, it will be something else. It never stops. I wish you would have stayed little just a short while longer, but that isn’t how it works, and I didn’t get a say.”

Catherine didn’t know how to respond to that.

Her father patted her cheek with his palm, and bent down to kiss her on the top of her head. “But I’m still so proud of who you are, Catherine. My smart, good girl. And you wouldn’t be her, if you didn’t grow, right?”

Catherine nodded. “Right.”

Dante blew out a heavy exhale, and waved at the pretty Lexus with the bright red bow on the hood. “So, it’s not the automatic you wanted, but a stick shift is better, anyway. Learn how to drive a stick, and your hands will always be too busy to do anything but drive the car. Which means no texting or calls with your phone, and less anxiety for me.”

“You’ve never driven a stick shift,” her father continued, “but it isn’t too difficult.”

Right.

Never driven a stick shift.

Ever.

Catherine smiled at her father with a lie already ready. “Nope, never.”

Dante headed for the car, and she followed behind. “Let’s learn, then.”

An hour later, and Catherine was sure her father was ready to call it quits and take the Lexus back to trade it in for an automatic. Even if that meant it wasn’t in her color of choice, and the leather wasn’t tan.

Cross had been right all those months ago when he let her practice driving the Range Rover. He had simply given her an idea of what driving stick shift was like. It wasn’t anything like the real thing when she was behind the wheel, needing to steer, pump the clutch, shift gears, all the while listening for the engine’s growl for those things to be done. There was certainly no time for her to be constantly watching her mirrors like her father kept demanding, and she hated everything.

“This is exhausting,” Dante mumbled to himself.

Catherine rested her forehead on the steering wheel. “You shout too much; I can’t concentrate.”

“I do not shout.”

He kind of did, though she didn’t think it was purposeful. Her father didn’t shout a lot to begin with; he was a domineering man, but not a loud one.

“Okay, so you talk very loudly at me,” Catherine said, glaring at her father.

Dante frowned. “I didn’t mean to, sweetheart.”

Catherine shrugged, and sat straight up in the driver’s seat. “Maybe I just can’t drive stick.”

“Or maybe you need a better teacher. My brother taught me in a day, and he had no teacher.”

“Uncle Lucian?”

Dante laughed under his breath. “Grandpapa Antony wishes. No, it was Giovanni. He was only fourteen, and could drive stick better than our father.”

“Really?”

Her father shrugged. “Giovanni had a propensity to steal things. Cars, mostly. Dad’s cars, actually. He taught himself, and blew out the clutch in one of Antony’s old cars in the process, but he did learn.”

Catherine pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. “Really?”

“I think Antony let him get away with it only because he figured out he didn’t have to teach me or Lucian how to drive stick. Your grandpapa is not a very good teacher, either.”

“You’re a good teacher, Daddy.”

Dante waved her statement off. “Clearly, I’m not when it comes to this. How about I go make a call, and see if Uncle Gio has time to come over later?”